


The Determination In My Soul [DIMS]

by Cosmic_Ally_Great



Category: Undertale
Genre: Determination injections, Imprisonment, No More Resets, Pacifist Post Genocide, Papyrus is a cinnamon roll, Sans remembers, Soul Transmutation, kidnaping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2020-10-26 01:37:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20734115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cosmic_Ally_Great/pseuds/Cosmic_Ally_Great
Summary: Looking off into the sunset, Frisk smiled and remembered all the good moments they had lived in these last few timelines. Having done 23 resets, the small human settled to live in a pacifist timeline with their friends.And although no more resets would occur, their journey was far from over yet.Secrets long hidden were soon to be revealed.





	1. The end?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! My name is cosmic and this is my first Fic on AO3, hope you enjoy and if you have any doubts on the story I’m always answering the comments! That being said, enjoy.
> 
> ((This comic will have an irregular update schedule, but it will upload once a week at least))

Looking off into the sunset, Frisk smiled and remembered all the good moments they had lived in these last few timelines. Having done 23 resets, the small human settled to live in a pacifist timeline with their friends.

Frisk had done some questionable things, and after that last genocide timeline, Frisk had given in to sans’ words and given up, however she wasn’t alone, and a long forgotten power eminated from her soul. Chara took control, and slayed sans. 

How were they able to take control? It was all because of some long forgotten and erased timeline, in which Frisk had sold their soul to Chara, and gave them power over Frisk’s soul, so their friends could live on. Since then Chara had influenced frisk’s decisions in much greater ways

Seeing sans’ death once more had shook them, and they had reset, against Chara‘s will, before the demon could get any stronger. Chara was furious, but they had been calm for some timelines now, as if they were another person completly, yet, Frisk had not expected for them to —-

‘Frisk!’ A child’s voice rang close by.

‘Hey Asriel!’ Frisk answered 

Frisk smiled, and thanked Chara for this chance they had given Frisk to make up for their mistakes. Before Asriel could vanish after breaking the barrier, Chara had told Frisk a few words with a message they would never forget

‘Make up for your mistakes, take the chance I’m giving you, and save my brother.’ 

And with that, Chara had vanished, while Asriel now possessed a half human soul. most of their determination still lingered and could be felt near the barrier, Frisk wondered if some of Flowey’s had also escaped him. 

Frisk was nowhere as brave as Chara, but they would take this last request and fulfill it. 

Asriel continued ‘The skeletons and the fish are in the throne room, mom and dad wanted to speak to us both, they’re coming this way.’ Asriel didn’t know what his parents had in mind, nor what frisk would say when they asked how the human had managed to save Asriel and break the barrier, but whatever frisk said, he would stand by them and help his savior all the way.

‘Thanks for the heads up’ frisk said, sounding a bit worried.

‘What are you gonna tell them?’ Asriel was referring to his previous identity, and their strange power. 

‘I’ll wait until we’re all together, then I’ll tell them about the resets, if you want, we can also say who you have been these past few years.’ 

The image of a flower lingered in Asriel's mind, but it had to be done, he wanted to move on, and keeping secrets was not the way to do it.

‘I’ll stand by you Frisk, I’m not a coward anymore.’ 

Frisk smiled at his sincerity, he certainly was much more likeable with a soul, but they wouldn’t say that comment out loud. 

‘I’m… not gonna lie anymore, Asriel, I’m sacred, but, could you help me once more, by staying by my side while I explain to them what the resets are?’ 

Asriel stared at Frisk with a stern look. ‘Of course, for the sake of our happy ending, I’ll do anything.’ 

‘Even if explaining my past identity is hard, I won’t back down, you’ve saved me once more Frisk, the least I could do is return the favor’ 

That night was eventful, Once the two children were alone with their parents Frisk and Asriel had told them about flowey, his soullessness and his crimes, but it wasn’t over there. 

They then called the rest of their friends, and explained the hardest part by far, they talked about the power of determination, and having explained what the resets were, and the power both Asriel and Frisk had used and abused, they had been under thorough judgment. It was hard to understand but together they explained it as best as they could. 

Undyne wouldn’t believe it at first, she felt betrayed, knowing the kind child wasn’t as innocent as she thought.

Alphys stood in silence, faint pieces of information sounding familiar, for she had studied the timeline theorem years earlier.

Papyrus was quiet, he wouldn’t stop believing that they could improve, but knowing Two of his closest friends had done such horrible things, well, it wasn’t easy to digest.

Sans said nothing. 

Asgore looked down on Asriel,if the flower thing had shaken him, knowing his own son had murdered people over and over again had hurt him beyond words, he felt his son was a mirror of himself, having made the same mistakes as him. 

And toriel was speechless, years prior she had abandoned her husband for much minor crimes, and now her own son had turned out to be even worse.

But they would move on, no matter what happened next, no resets would occur, they had been forgiven, and a week later, it was as if nothing ever happened, though something like that wouldn’t be easily forgotten.


	2. Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toriel is busy, Frisk is enjoying themselves. Sans and the smol goat have a talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, be expecting another one soon (no promises but maybe tomorrow)

Unpacking in ‘The Newest Monster Home’ took far less than Frisk had expected. Asgore still sucked at naming places. The monsters were settled in and ready to assist meetings in the embassy by the end of the week. Papyrus was Frisk assistant, and asgore was the leader of their small team. Though most of the times it was just Asgore and Toriel visiting the embassy. However the humans weren’t exactly friendly towards the monsters, and there had been some fights, but they were moving forwards towards peace. 

On the ninth mourning of freedom, Asriel and Frisk sat at the kitchen table, eating Toriel’s pie when the bell rang. Rising from his seat, Asriel answered the door, “Howdy! How may I help—?” He was cut off when he saw the two skeleton brothers standing in the doorway. 

Asriel was puzzled.

“Oh, have Sans and Papyrus arrived already?” Toriel’s voice sounded from deeper inside the house. “Yup.” Asriel replied. Seeing Papyrus brought back some memories from past timelines, his favorite, he had called the tall skeleton. Asriel felt his sins crawling on his back. Sans stared at the young prince. “welp you gonna invite us in or what?” Papyrus went right ahead to meet Frisk, Asriel staying by the door for a few seconds that seemed like minutes, sans looked just as uncomfortable, but said nothing. 

“Splendid! It is good to see you again my friend, I need to head to the embassy with Asgore, thank you for agreeing to take care of Frisk and Asriel.” Toriel said while coming down the stairs. Asriel facepalmed, he had forgotten that was today. Sans smiled, “Eh no problem tori we’ll take care of these two” Not like sans was going to actually be watching them, he’d probably just nap the whole day. Papyrus cut in “Worry not Lady Toriel, for I The Grrrrrrreat Papyrus will be able to protect and watch over them with no difficulties whatsoever!” “Yup” sans replied “besides it’ll just be a couple of days, we can handle that”

A few minutes later, Papyrus and Frisk we’re finishing helping Toriel load the car with seemingly unnecessary luggage. Asriel and Sans sat inside. “So… you enjoying the surface Sans?” “Yeah, certainly much more enjoyable without a weed running around” oh. So he was still bitter about that. Asriel wasn’t surprised, he had done a lot of terrible things to Sans and Papyrus, yet Sans wasn’t as aggressive towards him as Asriel though he would be. Welp, he wasn’t gonna complain about that.

“And you’ve got any plans for today?” Asriel inquired, he wasn’t about to let this opportunity to reconcile with Sans go. “Paps wanted to go explore the park, he doesn’t remember being there before.” Sans wasn’t making this easy but that wouldn’t stop Asriel from trying. “Look Sans, I get you don’t like me because of what flowey did, but I’m not flowey, I have a soul, and a body, and most importantly a conscience.” Sans stared skeptically at the goat “And although Flowey was soulless it doesn’t excuse his actions, so I wanna ask for your forgiveness, if not towards Flowey, but so we can have a better future, and move on.” 

Sans let out a chuckle. This was extremely hypocritical of Asriel. ‘Moving on’ even though sans had been trapped living the same days over and over again thanks to him. Sans was mad, and he had no trouble showing it, but to be completely honest, he had never been one to hold grudges for long, maybe he could find it in his scarred soul to forgive the one who had hurt him and those he cared about.

He let out a sigh.

Fine. 

He would give him _ one _ chance. 

“Heh, well, Paps wanted to head out soon, so if you wanna bring anything, now’s the chance to get it.” Sans said, the bitterness in his voice resolving into something much friendlier.

Score. 

Asriel has just taken a step in the right direction.

The young goat ran outside and said goodbye to his mother, then back inside, he darted up to his room, he had to grab his most prized possession before going.

The Lockett. 

As Asriel turned around Frisk stood in the doorway. “Hey bro.” Frisk tone flickered between friendly and serious. “You notice anything weird with sans as of lately?” Asriel squinted, nodding his head. “Dunno what you mean” Frisk looked towards the doorframe. “Ever since we came clean about the resets sans has been… different.” Asriel froze, did Frisk not know that Sans could remember the resets? He wasn’t gonna spoil the secret, he was barely able to gain Sans’ trust as he was. “Sorry Frisk, I have no idea.” Asriel then put on the locked, and leaving Frisk upstairs, he raced to the kitchen, of course, Sans was napping on the counter, while Papyrus was packing some snacks.

“Hey smiley!” Sans’ eye immediately snapped open. Papyrus was just out of earshot yet Asriel wispered. “Does Frisk not know that you can remember the resets?” Sans took a second to process the question. “Eh, don’t think so… they know I was aware of their power even before they came clean, but remembering actual timelines? They’ve got no idea.” Asriel was surprised Sans was so open about this, but then again he was the only other person apart from Frisk that was actively taking part in the timeline anomaly event. “Have you said anything to the kid?” Asriel was snapped out of his thinking. “Uh no. But-“ “Good.” Sans interrupted him. “Keep it that way.” 

Frisk made their way downstairs, and before Asriel could react sans was already napping again. This was goin to end badly.

  



	3. The prototype

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashy backs! Who doesn’t love them?
> 
> Sans goes back to his old lab to take one last look at his old stuff, brings back some cute memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More chapters to come soon! I’m stablishkng an update chedule, see next chapter for more information. and each chapter is about 1000 words.

Sans ran through the dark halls of the lab, not in a panic, but excitement.

“Sans!!” Alphys was right behind him. Sans gave her a sly smile, oh she wouldn’t reach the doc before him. The two had been at war ever since their internship in the lab began, both top students in their class, at 16 they had both been handpicked to help out in the core. Alphys was shy but smart, sans had to give it to her, when talking about the relationships between a monster and their magic, the subatomic links between the attacks and their casters, the arcane possibilities within a monster soul, and the potential energy derivatives of a human soul, well, there was no one who could defeat the small lizard, but when it came to Quantum Physics, the Arcane Temporal Theorem, the RESET and timeline anomaly - determination Reports, Sans Had her beat. Some might say that the Royal Scientist had a soft spot for the skeleton, since he was one himself, yet if anything, he was harsher on Sans. 

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Sans sat in his old lab, rummaging through boxes of reports and old photographs. He wouldn’t be taking any of it to the surface, but he wanted to say one last goodbye to his old life in the labs. 

He had loved his career, arising Quantum Physics and The Temporal Anomaly theorem, along with many other things, he had been at the top of his class, hung out with alphys and the rest of the science crew at the core. 

He missed that. Oh so much more than he’d ever admit. 

Not just The Royal Scientist, but his followers, he’s been close to them, like a family that he’d never had, apart from Papyrus that is. 

Although he WAS related to The Royal Scientist, they weren’t close, and he was an asshole to sans all the time. But sans cared for him deep down.

He shuddered. Such a cruel fate that had befallen the scientists. Sans had always wondered wether it was the Scientist fault, or his. That would be something that would haunt him for many years.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

“It won’t work! The link is too weak, you won’t get it to respond!” The lizard kept giving him excuses to stop him from reaching the doctor. “Nope, if the arcane force of the caster is compensated for the weak relation to the attack, it could work!” Sans responded, alphys would have countered that no matter the force of the magic, if the aura of the caster remained the same, the prototype wouldn’t respond, but Sans had already reached the doctor’s office.

The two young scientists burst through the office door. “Hey G! I found a solution!” Sans was eager to share, though it seemed that alphys wouldn’t let him. “Actually it wouldn’t work because—!” “Hey kids,” a woman’s voice sounded from the right side of the office, where The Royal Scientist should have been. It was Valerie, The royal Scientist’s right hand, and supervisor of all the work that happened at the core. “Oh, hey Val, didn’t expect to see you here.” Sans had really hoped to catch the Doc today, it seemed like today’s just wasn’t his day. Alphys triumphantly walked past sans to talk to Dr. Valerie. 

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Picking up the photo album, he found the drawing papyrus made years ago, then turned to the old team’s photo. Their faces were blurred out, except for alphys and his own.

The old team, oh what memories. Valerie, the brains behind it all, they called her

Yune , the mechanic, teaching alphys’ the ropes

Miachel, Those who knew him just called him kid, he was just a few years older than sans.

And Cassidy, she always knew how to cheer up everyone. Her bulky form made for the best hugs, and she took care of the team. 

Sans smiled, remembering all those nights watching anime in the labs instead of working. Maybe now that he was in the surface he’d go back to the lab, help out alphys.

But he knew it would never be the same. Especially not after the discovery that caused sans to separate from the Quantum branch of science. 

His magic would be his downfalll, the old Royal Scientist had told him. And he wasn’t wrong.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

“Well, as sans was saying, we found something.” She said. Valerie looked delighted. “Go ahead, i'd love to know about it.” Sans went on to explain that if a source of power, be it determination or arcanian soul power it could link the caster to the prototype, powering it up. “Interesting theory” Val obviously had much more experience, “what is your viewpoint on this alphys?” The lizard took no time to respond “well even if you compensated the weak link with raw power it wouldn’t work, no commands would reach the prototype, so not only would you need a sustainable power source, but the ability to communicate with it as well.” Alphys said, building on Sans’ theory. Many disputes later, it was decided that the two should head down to the lower parts of the lab, and try out the prototype, that lay next to the Determination Extractor. 

As the elevator came to a stop, the doors opened with a mechanical whine. Someone should check that out. They stepped into the main room, coming face to face with the prototype, the Arcane cannon and soul strengthening prototype. They were surprised to find someone else down there. It was indeed their boss, The Royal Scientist, Dr. W D Gaster.

~•~•~•~•~•~

Sans sighed. Looking at his father in the picture he was brought back to the worst memory of his internship. Why had gaster done that? Chosen to act so mercilessly, unnecessary cruelty towards everyone. Sans had seen his father’s slow rise of LV, and with it, he also noticed how Gaster slowly inched to the abysmal fall to his demise. 

Gaster Had trained sans. They both could see souls outside of battle and without the need to check a monster. A trait that gave him an advantage, and with it, he began separating from science, and became the new Judge. 

Gaster knew sans would have to judge him. Yet he did not care. Although if gaster could see how things turned out in the end, well, sans was sure he would have been happy. But the past had happened. And he needed to move on now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This flashback will be continued next chapter, but we will be back to the present, Papyrus and the gang going to the park. What could go wrong?


	4. The Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some cannons are stablished. How hp works, the fact that exp dosent necessarily define your LV, sans can see souls outside of battle, he can also remember resets, oh and he’s the judge. Alphys and sans are depressed (basically everyone who worked at the lab at some point) and some references to the past are made. 
> 
> Wanna know what else is finally stablished? My update schedule!  
Every Friday between 3pm - 1 am

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wish to support me and read chapters in advance? 
> 
> Go ahead and do so on Patreon!
> 
> https://www.patreon.com/Cosmic_allyGreat

Not long after Toriel left, a small lizard and a tall fish appeared on the front step. Sans wondered why they were here, although knowing Papyrus, in alternate timelines he’d invited them to the park, and then they’d spend the afternoon together watching anime. Not surprisingly, it turned out to be true, wow was it easy to predict what would happen. Sans frowned. He didn’t know whether to be glad or terrified about this fact.

Once in the park, the small group of monsters settled under a tree, leaving their snacks and belongings with sans and alphys, the rest of the group had gone on ahead to play a game Undyne called ‘catch the flying human,’ but alphys and Papyrus quickly put a stop to it before it could escalate, then they’d just spend their time sparring. 

“NYAGHHH!” As Undyne’s ferocious voice rang through the air, it seemed like the battle was getting intense. 

Papyrus sent a barrage of bones blocking of undyne’s path of attack, she instead sent spears flying from unexpected angles. Papyrus dogged out of the way only to get hit by her green effect. Shield in hand, he blocked perfectly all the spears, and once he regained mobility, he conjured a blue attack mixed with normal bones. 

Frisk’s eyes gleamed. They never really had stopped to admire how skillful papyrus was when he actually tried. In retrospect, maybe they should have picked it up when Papyrus was flawlessly able to bring frisk down to one hp without killing them. 

“Alright!” Undyne shouted, bringing frisk’s focus back. “You two nerds have to participate!” Alphys turned a couple shades redder and sans just shrugged ”sorry cap, but uh, we nerds don’t really want to participate” he looked over at alphys ”too much effort. And besides” he added “I don’t have the muscle for it” alphys snickered. Undyne wasn’t amused to say the least.

She threw a spear in between the two. “Move it.” She stared daggers at sans “now!” He threw one bone in response. Undyne didn’t even try to dodge it. It had a purplish glow to it. And went right through her. Not leaving a visible wound, Undyne laughed it off. “Wow sans. You took 3 of my hp.” He chuckled, feeling his karmic retribution take effect on Undyne, but it didn’t seem she noticed. “and that’s why I don’t spar” he stood up. “But if you insist on the exercise part, I could go for a walk” Undyne frowned “well the punks and paps are gonna stay here, so you’re on your own.” She didn’t wait for sans to reply before she turned away and continued sparring. Sans turns back to alphys. “Ya comin al?” the small lizard shook her head. “no, it’s fine… I’ve got a great view here” he gave her a puzzled look “ oh you know what I mean!” Alphys turned back to watch Undyne spar. Man, she really liked that fish. 

Sans left the group, and as soon as he was out of sight, he took a shortcut to the other side of the park. He really didn’t want company. The idea to go to the park was just to check up on his friends and so Papyrus could have a good time. He subconsciously gripped at his chest. His soul felt heavy. After taking one quick peek at Undyne’s soul he noticed that even though she had some exp, her Lv remained the same, ‘1’ well that was comforting. But it was Alphys’ state what really worried him. There had been cracks in her soul for many years, because of the lies and cover ups. alphys wasn’t the definition of health, but When they got to the surface, she had improved. the largest crack was still threatening. It wouldn’t be the first timeline in which alphys took her own life because of it. He would have to keep an eye out to make sure that didn’t happen. 

He had researched for many years souls, and learned much about his own powers that way. The power to ‘read’ souls as his predecessor had called it. The power to act as judge, and to protect those he cared about. 

Though for many years he found no reason to continue. If it wasn’t for Papyrus, Sans’ own mind would have made the small skeleton go mad a long time ago. The pressure of the resets, the hurt of his past. It had slowly taken a high toll on him. The slow burn away of his health.

Hp stood for ‘hope’ the will to keep living. Sans had lost that many years ago. That’s why his hp was so low. His hope was gone. It was a miracle that he wasn’t dead. No. Not a miracle. It was a burning feeling that urged him to keep going. He hated it. The determination in him was enough to keep him alive but not enough to actually change anything. At the minimal damage that made him lose the red liquid. It would permanently diminish his hp, since he couldn’t replace that with anything. He was useless, weak, and he’d done unforgivable things. What an irony, at first all he wanted was to live new experiences and adventures and now all he wanted was some rest. Sans forced himself to stop that train of thought. Self-deprecating thoughts wouldn’t help here on the surface. As much as he regretted his past right now he should at least try to move on. Or well, to last until the next reset came and wiped out everything. Bringing him lower than ever before. Sans wondered how long it would take him to break— 

Sans bumped into someone. Of course. He was at a public park. He stared up at the human. Looked to be in his 40’s definitely didn’t look like the type to hang around kids. Sans reflexively looked at his soul. 

** _[Exp 27 LV 3]_ **

Oh wow. This guy was dangerous. He should really get out of there. 

“Watch where you’re goin kid” the criminal lookin guy said. Sans didn’t take more than a second to agree and leave. Maybe it was time to return to the group. Humans didn’t completely accept monsters, and being alone in a mostly human populated area with people who had killed before was not the brightest of ideas. 

  
  


~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Frisk walked along the path. How far had sans gone? They really wanted to talk to him. Even with frisk’s best efforts they couldn’t catch up the skeleton. At one point they started wondering if he was till even in the park. 

Frisk came across three humans dressed in hoodies and with a beard that was at least 3 days old. 

They didn’t look friendly.

Frisk was alone. 

One pulled out a knife.

Frisk froze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh yeah, Frisk is in trouble.


	5. >use [ITEM]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Owo
> 
> Frisk is da boss
> 
> Sans wants to slap someone

Frisk stumbled back. Oh boy this was not good. Things couldn’t get worse.

“Frisk?!” Asriel was right behind them. Apparently they had been following them for a while now. 

Okay this was worse.“Back away Asriel, we may be in trouble here!” Frisk took another step back. 

Adriel’s eyes darted from human to human. They hadn’t said anything, but they were smiling. That was their mistake. Frisk had wiped the whole underground clean multiple times, and Asriel had been a cruel soulless flower for what seemed like hundreds of years. The two kids were more worried about not hurting them too much than actually getting hurt. Even when Asriel and Frisk told their friends that they had done cruel and unusual to the underground everyone still treated them like defenseless kids, but the fact that they avoided violence didn’t mean that they didn’t know how to fight.

Asriel and Frisk backed against each other, looking at the humans now surrounding them Frisk reached into their inventory 

** _[Items 4/8]_ **

** _> Monster Candy_ **

** _> Real knife_ **

** _> Stick_ **

** _> Pocket Sand_ **

** _> ._ **

** _> ._ **

** _> ._ **

** _> ._ **

Now or never Frisk guessed. Reaching for the sand they took a step forward. Before their assailants could even guess at what Frisk was planning, a rain on sand blinded the one who had the knife.  **Two left. ** Frisk ducked a punch and backed off. Asriel’s turn. He summoned a magic lightning bolt. Throwing it just inches of his face, the starteded human didn’t see Frisk sneaking up to him and then… WHACK! The human knelt down in pain. Yikes. Frisk guessed that after getting kicked in the nuts he wouldn’t be standing up. 

“Enough!” The third human took out a gun. Frisk and Asriel ran.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Finding monsters with LV in the underground wasn’t rare. The living conditions weren’t the best and people needed to do what they needed to do. Sans’ multiple stations allowed him to keep an eye out through the underground without raising too many alarms, and then inform the guard. The monster would be taken to the hall and Sand would judge them. Of course a normal monster could ask the judge for advice, or come for a ‘revision’ of sorts, if the monster felt that they’d done something they shouldn’t they would visit the hall and indeed be judged. This system only worked because monsters were made of love, hope and compassion, the weight of hurting someone, for some, it was too much to bear, so the judge not only kept justice, but encouraged everyone to keep going. The early days had been weird, but sans enjoyed it, science wasn’t his only passion, and he had a strong sense of justice, so the judge thing was just the cherry on top. 

Sans shortcutted halfway to the camp. He was gonna walk the rest back, but something stopped him. He turned to find a scared Frisk and Asriel running in his direction. He really wasn’t in the mood to play. So if this was a prank he would retaliate. With a prank of his own of course. 

But they looked scared. Why were they— BANG. The muffled sound echoing in his ears, he could recognize a gun firing any day. Many different weapons had fallen into the underground. And some fell along with a human. And a cowboy hat. 

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Two skeletons walked along waterfall. “Now sans, a human has been spotted near Snowdin” Gaster was lecturing sans on what to do if he found a human what the protocol was “I’d follow them around and take note of their actions” sans obviously wasn’t excited about yet another lecture. Gaster sighed “And?” Sans rolled his eyes “I’d inform the guard so they could take them to the hall and be judged.” Gaster chuckled. Training the young skeleton wasn’t hard, he was a fast learner, but it was tedious. Sans wasn’t one to put much effort towards the boring things, he only learned what he liked, and that sometimes got him in trouble. Gaster would have furthered this lesson, but the sound of a phone disturbed the peace. Nearby echo flowers echoed the sound. Sans answered “sup al?” Sans froze. Ha human Gad been spotted entering the waterfall area, apparently they had already passed through Snowdin. “wha?” Alphys sounded worried “Sans please tell me you and the doc aren’t there right now!” Sans shot gaster a worried look. “No, we were on our way to the core, listen al, stay in the lab, we’ll call the guard.” Sans sighed. Was this really happening? “A human has been spotted in our area” Gaster was surprised, what a perfect opportunity to practice his training. It didn’t take them long to find the human. The underground waterfall area wasn’t that big, and they doubted the child would starve very far from the main road. He was wearing a yellow cowboy hat and had some small object in his hands. Sans took a look at his soul.

**[EXP 0 LV 1] **

They hadn’t hurt anyone. That was a relief. “He hasn’t done anything let’s call the guard” the two skeletons informed the captain and the K-9 squad. They were gonna walk away when the human spotted them. 

“Ey! Yu two monstahs!” The child had a funny accent. “Show your ‘ands!” Gaster and Sans turned to face him. He had a gun. And it was pointed towards Sans. Oh boy. Gaster was getting nervous. he flinched. The human turned the muzzle towards him. “Don’t move!” They we’re in a dangerous position. Sans took a step forwards. “Hey listen kid—“ but he was cut off, apparently he had started them and the child fired the gun. Not expecting to hit anything, but the muzzle was still pointed at gaster. A loud roar sounded through the cavern. The human dropped the gun’s muzzle . Sans looked at gaster. The shot had hit the pal of his hand, thankfully were there where two gaping holes. That was too close for comfort. The child then ran away. Neither skeleton wanted to stop him. They raced towards the riverperson and to new home, they had to get to the hall before the human. 

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

The bullet graced sans jacket. His eyes went dark. Frisk and Asriel now stood near him. Yet turned to face the danger. Sans didn’t want to waste time to get out of there. He grabbed onto the two kid’s collars and ‘left’.

  
  


Frisk didn’t know where they were. The place was pitch black, yet they could see sans and Asriel clearly. Sans’ eye flashed between his natural cyan and yellow. Magic aura filling the area. “Wha—“ but sans cut them off. “WHAT THE FUCK!” Sans sounded angry, yet not at them. Apparently getting shot at wasn’t Sans’ idea of a good time. “Heeeey Sans” Frisk sheepishly said. Sans squinted at them “why might I ask, were you getting shot at?” Asriel stepped up. “We went looking for you and those guys came out of nowhere” Sans was even more shocked. “Wait. GUYS?! Multiple of them?” Frisk nodded. Sans sighed. The guy he’d seen earlier probably was important since he was staying away from the conflict. And sans had let him go, not even looking twice at him. “Alright we’re going back to the rest of the group.” Frisk just stared at him “um… I don’t really know where we are.” Sans blinked. Right. They had never shortcutted with Frisk in tow, flowey had been here once or twice when he’d grabbed onto Sans as he teleported, binging the weed along for the ride. Sans just shrugged it off “I know, I teleported is it of there” Frisk opened their mouth but Asriel nudged them. As sans closed his eyes and the colorful light disappeared they rematerialized unto the world. Not 15 feet away from camp. It seemed the rest of their friends were okay. Asriel turned to sans, “thanks” Sans sighed and patted his head. “Maybe next time be more careful.” He nodded. Frisk turned to them “I don’t wanna worry Toriel, but—“ Asriel cut them off. This was turning into a habit. “I think we should be careful, almost getting killed is not something the rest will take easy, and if Undyne hears about it she’ll go pick a fight.” Sans agreed “Alright, unless something else happens, we were never here.” They all nodded in silent agreement. Though Sans could tell. This was only the beginning of their troubles. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for late chapter, I was watching steven universe movie and got my feelings destroyed, next update on Friday!


	6. Auras

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mysterious aura drives some attackers away and our protagonists are stuck wondering who is the powerful one hiding in between their friends, but would you really consider a glass cannon to be powerful in a fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I haven’t uploaded in two weeks.  
No I have no regrets, school always comes first.  
But as a gift of sorts for your patience, I have made this chapter 3033 words long. Just so you have an average, chapters are normally 850 words, so I can upload once a week without feeling pressured, this chapter is about 3.5 chapters long.

“Frisk!” Papyrus’ voice broke through the quiet ambient of the park. Undyne stood upright behind him. “Are you three okay? We heard something really weird and--” 

though she wasn’t able to finish that thought. Sans had to move the subject away from that topic, but such a loud noise would not have been easy to ignore.He didn’t want to worry his friends, but he also couldn’t ignore the fact that Frisk and Asriel had gotten attacked. He would find out more about that on his own time without having to worry the rest.

“Duntuworryaboutthat,” sans said, just a bit too fast.

“What?” Papyrus wasn't convinced about sans’ nonchalant behavior. “But you heard the gunshot?” 

Sans flinched at those words. “That was a gunshot? Wow jeez, I wonder what the humans are up to now” Somehow that seemed to make things worse. Alphys frowned at him, knowing that this wasn’t sans’ first run in with a fire gun. He’d only meant to say that he didn’t know what the noise was. “I thought it was a firecracker or somethin’, wouldn’t expect a human to try and do anything so stupid in broad daylight.” 

Undyne relaxed at that, of course, the humans wouldn’t dare attack a monster with a firearm in a public park, it was practically a deathwish not like that mattered to most humans. “Well it’s a good thing you punks are okay, we got worried when you took so long to come back.” She looked over to sans. “But I guess you were just dragging that lazy bag of bones along.” 

“Hey, I’ll have you know, I’m not just any lazy bag of bones, I’m the laziest bag of bones, and despite common belief I don’t need to be dragged around.” He said, with a superiority tone that no one would take serious.

After a couple of minutes of laughter and A few more interrogative questions from Papyrus, alphys and Undyne later, the group decided to pack up and go home. If humans were trying to start trouble in the park it wouldn’t be the wisest idea to stay.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sans stood in the cracked tiles of the lower offices in the lab, they were mostly used for storage but that only made them even more fun to explore. There was always something down there that could help with newer experiments, whether it was to find a solution to a current problem, or a new experiment to try out, sans just liked to hang out down there.

After a few more minutes of rummaging, sans found what looked to be old CORE reports, maybe even dating back to the first few trials of the core, and their effect on the underground. 

The CORE apparently started out as a reliable source of geothermal energy, that turned out to be not quite enough to power the whole underground, so Gaster, the royal scientist found a new way to utilize that power, opening a rift between planes, and extracting energy from that new place.

Huh, that piqued sans’ interest, couldn’t they just use that portal to escape the underground? Just simply teleport through the barrier? but the rest of the records of that time were either blacked out or missing, whoever last came down here didn’t want anyone to know what happened after. Sans grabbed the file and decided it was time to go upstairs to the rest of the facility. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It didn’t take sans long to notice one of the humans from the park was following them. And not so discreetly. It seemed that Undyne had also taken notice of it. They exchanged a glance. 

“Frisk, Asriel come here for a sec,” sans said, his usual with tone. Sans grabbed their hands and pulled them in front of Papyrus and Undyne, alphys following closely behind. 

“Wha?” The two asked almost simultaneously. 

Turning a corner, they group stopped and turned, ready to surprise their stalker. 

As the human turned to face the angry group of monsters, his first instinct was to step back, knowing he had fallen into a trap.

Frisk and Asriel recognized him as one of their park assailants, immediately knowing why Sans had pulled in front of the group, away from danger. 

Well this wouldn’t end well. A hunter such as Undyne and a defender Papyrus wouldn’t mix well with one bloodthirsty human, specially when they were on edge. This human was practically asking for a death wish, but that would only fuel the hatred between the species. 

And then the *completly* unexpected happened. two more humans appeared behind the first. The monsters had fallen into an ambush while making an ambush themselves. 

Tension was felt in the air as the fight seemed inevitable. The street, deserted, no bystanders that could interfere. It was a good ambush, Undyne had to admit. 

“Back off monsters!” The first asailant said, glaring at them.

Frisk frowned. This was bad. 

The second human took a step forwards. But turned his attention to Frisk “You’re disgusting! How can you live with these animals! Much less defend them!” His tone was threatening, Frisk took a step back.

“Traitor to your own kind.” The third human chimed in. 

At that Papyrus stopped them, much to sans and Undyne’s wish that he wouldn’t interfere, this would get ungly real fast and as Undyne had seen many times, Papyrus wouldn’t be one to run away or fight back. But Befriending these humans wasn’t gonna work. 

“Dear humans! These things you are telling the smol human frisk aren’t very kind, so it would be greatly appreciated if you would so kindly stop saying such things, if you’re angry, taking it out on possible future friends isn’t very smart!” Yup that was Papyrus alright. Yet the humans disagreed with his ideals.

After a good 5 seconds of staring into the tall skeleton wondering if he was joking, or if he didn’t have a brain (physically and well, you get the point), the human gave Papyrus a good shove, sending him back a few paces.

Baaad idea. Undyne summoned a few spears, tempting the humans to try that again.

But something stopped everyone dead in their tracks. 

A cyan-colored aura flooded through the area, as a snarling animal-like sound could be heard behind the monsters. The aura was powerful, imposing, they could feel it, right down to their souls. Ever consuming, like being judged by a presence that wasn’t really there. 

Even though apart from the spears, no other attack had been summoned, the threatening humans felt threatened and quickly decided to back off. Humans may be stronger than monsters, but without magic, in a one on one fight, the humans were likely to lose.

The humans took a few steps back, and, turning the corner, retreated from the fight.

Well, that was good.

But the ever-impending feeling of doom from that powerful aura remained. 

  
  


~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

  
  


“Hey, gaster?” Sans inquired. “I found some files of an old project? And I had an idea.” Sans took a look around before entering. “If you have time that is.”

“Come on in” Gaster responded

Stepping inside the office Sans was met with a wave of dust. The doc really should clean in here from time to time. Gaster was standing next to the archive, looking for something. Turning to face Sans, the he quickly recognized the project files the younger skeleton was carrying.

“Well,” Sans commenced, but he was cut by gaster raising his hand. 

“No, sans, that project was abandoned and it will stay that way,” gaster said.

Jeez he hadn’t even let sans speak, rude.

"but" sans tried to continue. 

"No buts sans." gaster interrupted " that was a dangerous project in which there were injuries and the portal was too unstable.” he continued, “we weren’t able to salvage any energy remaining from the transport. Hell, we wasted more energy powering up the contraption than we could actually get from the other side. It’s not worth it. " gaster concluded. 

"yeah I read the reports, but I didn’t mean to try again if we could power up a portal to get energy from another plane, couldn’t we just teleport through the barrier?" sans inquired.

That stopped gaster dead in his tracks. he hadn’t thought about it apparently. 

"jeez old man, had you never thought about it until now?" sans snickered. “If you’re capable of opening inter-dimensional portals, why not just teleport to the other side of the barrier?”

Gaster frowned. "it’s still extremely dangerous" he neglected that the idea that it could be possible. " it wouldn’t work" 

"really? well even though most details about your... uh... accident are obscured, it’s clear that the main problem with this project was that you tried teleporting to a whole nother dimension, however, what I’m saying is that we only need to be teleporting a few meters. Not jumping through dimensions." sans said. 

Gaster hated to admit that sans might be right, it could work, they could finally get through the barrier, yet, gaster wasn’t completely convinced. He sighed, maybe it would work, maybe optimism, just this once would work. He shook his head.

"alright sans, ill get you all the missing information from that file, but by the end of the month, I want the sketch for the blueprint and the calculations all done, we will go on from there. 

Sans smiled. this was gonna be great. 

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

“What happened back there?” Undyne’s voice broke through the quiet chill of the afternoon. “we can’t pretend that didn’t happen!” Sans shrugged at her. As Undyne let out a groan of frustration. 

“Okay let’s recap.” She continued. “We’re all chilling in the park, sans leaves, Asriel and Frisk go after him, and seconds before you return we hear a really loud noise. Almost like a gunshot” 

Papyrus nodded. “And on our way back home we come across some intimidating humans that didn’t seem like they wanted to be friends.” 

“Right!” Undyne interrupted. “And they are scared away by an unknown aura?” She threw her arms up in frustration “who even was that?!” 

“So how do all the pieces fit together?” Papyrus questioned, not really paying attention to her question. 

Sans shrugged again. His mind drifting elsewhere

The three monsters stood over the kitchen counter, while Alphys, made sure the two kids were safe and unharmed.

As the other two monsters continued arguing, sans, who was the only one with any real information about the attacks. Remained silent. 

He should have been able to instantly check the humans without such a large magical output. Even Undyne and Papyrus seemed to have noticed his aura, not to mention that he almost summoned a blaster. Losing control over his magic? Wouldn’t be the first time, yet, it had been so long ago since he’d had problems with it. Something was clearly wrong. He should check it out as soon as possible, but for now, that wasn’t important. The humans’ intentions were clear. To kill. To hurt. To torture. Even though it would take much more than that to hurt Frisk emotionally, it was clear that this wouldn’t be the last they saw of them. Two attacks in a single day? Never in any other timeline had that happened, humans had acted hostile, yes, but this was exaggerated. yet here we were, Magic acting weird, new outcomes to the timeline. What could have changed? What had sans missed? What did sans—

  
  


“SANS” Undyne’s voice broke through his thoughts like a spear.

Blinking multiple times, sans just stared at them.

Oh for the love of! Had they been talking to sans for the past 10 minutes and he had not listened to them at all!?

“We were saying brother, that we both felt a magical aura, quite a powerful one, and we don’t know who it was, yet it seemed familiar.” Papyrus summarized for sans. 

So they had noticed his aura. Well, that was bad. Even though they were brothers, they had never sparred together, sans wasn’t gonna take the risk of getting injured. 

While it was true, the unknown magic seemed familiar to Papyrus, he couldn’t quite place why, after all, except for a few times in their youth, sans had never used much magic with his brother around. It didn’t even cross Papyrus’ mind that it was his brother’s aura. 

“It kinda seemed like your magic paps, but it felt so different, intense, yet weak.” Undyne said, “I still don’t know what could have caused it.” 

“Oh” Sans wasn’t surprised that his magic resembled his brother’s, they were family after all, but his magic had gone through quite a few tumbles in the past, so it was surprising that Undyne recognized it. 

Papyrus and Undyne both turned to sans, waiting for him to continue.

“Yeah that might have been me…” he shrugged. “I got nervous”

“Wait what?” Undyne questioned. “I don’t believe it.”

“Well I’ll summon an attack and judge it yourself.” Sans suggested. 

Undyne frowned. It couldn’t be. The laziest monster in the underground wouldn’t have such intense magic aura. She could hardly believe it, much less think about what his magic would be capable of with that intensity. 

Standing up, sans though of a simple, yet powerful attack, something that would let his presence be felt, without needing to use much magic. 

And with a twist of his hand, he grabbed Undyne with blue soul magic. 

That was apparently too much. And Undyne dropped to the floor, being weighed down by weight that wasn’t there. 

Sans hadn’t meant for it to be so strong, but his magic was acting up. Again. Another weird thing about this timeline. He immediately let go. 

“Uhh sorry Undyne, you okay?” He said stepping forwards to help Undyne up.

Okay, maaaaybe she had underestimated sans, just maybe though. 

“I’m fine, it just startled me” she laughed “didn’t expect you to be so strong” 

He sighed, of course, she was fine, she wasn’t captain for nothing. The skeleton brother’s helped Undyne up, and after joking about it for a few minutes, Alphys came in the room.

“Asriel and frisk are fine, gladly nothing happened to them,” Alphys said. “Did we find out what the magical aura was?” 

“Yeah, it turns out it was sans! Who would have known he could actually be intimidating?” Undyne joked.

Alphys raised an eyebrow at sans. Sans shrugged, not wanting to give out too much information. Alphys was the last one that needed to know he was struggling with his magic. 

Alphys knew much about sans, but sans made sure that not one person had all the details. He spread out the information about himself along with many friends. No one ever having too much information. Sure if all of them came together they could figure out his life story, but that had never happened in any timeline, so there was no reason to think it would happen in this one. 

One of those things Alphys knew is that it wasn’t the first time sans had problems with his magic, and normally, it meant things were about to go wrong, I mean, having an uncontrollable glass cannon roaming loose wasn’t very good in most situations, not to mention sans could potentially hurt himself. 

Things were going great. Hopefully, this weekend would pass quickly, and toriel would be back soon. 

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

  
  


"Asriel!" frisk said, right as Asriel was about to leave the room after Alphys.

"yeah frisk?" he asked, not knowing what frisk wanted. 

"well, you know how today the humans were creeped out by some mysterious aura?" 

Asriel nodded. "what about it?" 

frisk frowned at him, of course, Asriel had to have recognized it, how could he not? "well it seemed oddly familiar..." frisk continued, waiting for Asriel to catch on. 

Asriel adverted his eyes from frisk, not wanting to meet their gaze. "if you’re trying to ask if I recognized it, I’m pretty sure we both know who it was." he answered. 

So Asriel did know sans' magic, Firks remembered flowey hinting towards' sans power before, how sans had cause flowey more than his fair share of resets' and the same could be said about frisk, the smell of blood and iron, the orange pattern of the hall. it was a miracle frisk hadn’t screamed out in fear as soon as she felt that magic engulf her soul. But when frisk saw Asriel paralyzed, as well as Undyne and papyrus, frisk realized she wasn’t in any danger. at least not from sans. yet that left frisk wondering, why had sans exposed so much magic? it really was unlike sans to show his true power just like that. Something was clearly wrong unless sans had really felt threatened by the humans, in which case frisk wouldn’t blame him for being on edge. especially when he'd almost gotten shot not that long ago. the two stood in the silent room, awkwardly, not wanting to say anything, yet both were feeling the same sense of guilt. 

Asriel though sans' outburst wasn’t necessary, but understood it, hed watched sans fight frisk

many times, mostly out of boredom, yet, it didn’t matter that it was a different human, or that he was now on the surface, the everlasting memory of getting murdered would remain, things like that wouldn’t easily be forgotten. 

"I want to help him," frisk said, cutting the silence between them. 

Asriel didn’t want to betray sans’ trust, hed promised sans that he wouldn’t tell frisk about remembering the resets, yet, if sans were especially on edge because of old memories, talking to someone that knew what he was going through might help him. Sans wasn’t the only one who still thought about and was tormented by past timelines. "I don’t know frisk" Asriel finally said, "you know sans doesn’t like to talk about himself, but if you want I could give it a try" 

Frisk's eyes lit up at that. "yes! thank you!"

and Asriel was pulled into a hug. so fluffy, it was good to have someone who they could talk about this kind of stuff without being judged by others, or thinking they were crazy. it was nice to have Asriel back. it was nice to have a family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so there’s about 2 more chapters left in this arc, before we get into the real action, and I do want to say that there’s gonna be gaster angst, and lab experiment angst as well, you have been warned.  
Next chapter we have some action, and hopefully it will be just as long as this one, and well, on time for once.


	7. Third time’s the charm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Knowledge is power.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If everything goes well this Arc should end November 22, and will be on hiatus for the week of thanksgiving

The project was going well, the final calibrations were being made before the final prototype was put into action. Maybe this would actually work.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Frisk walked quietly, asriel closely behind. They were to the skeleton brother’s household, walking alone in the streets. it had been 3 weeks since the attacks, and the town was peaceful, everyone had forgotten all about it, simply disregarding it as a hate crime. They were informing their friends that they were planning a party to celebrate their first month of freedom, even though they technically had seen the sun many times before. They had called Undyne and alphys to prepare for the party, and we’re heading over to the skeleton’s house to drop off some things that had been left over in their stay at Toriel’s house, well, that was the excuse at least. 

“We’re here” said Asriel. Standing in front of the skeletons’ mailboxes. He wasn’t wearing his usual sweater, but a blue t shirt and shorts, almost like sports clothing. 

“You look nervous” Frisk said “you okay?” 

Asriel nodded “Well of course, it’s just that sans and I had a rivalry for many years because ya know,” he flinched. “Flowey” 

Frisk understood, sans wasn’t the most open person about how he felt, and it didn’t help that the only person who knew him well enough to know what was bothering him and be able to help him, had been his enemy for years. Maybe asking Asriel to talk to sans wasn’t the best idea. But sans was even more reclusive as of late. Like if he was hiding something. 

Hmm.

...

“GREETINGS!” A yell surprised both of the children. 

Both taking a step back, they turned to look at the taller of the skeletons. 

“Hey paps” Asriel said, still recuperating from the scare. “We’ve come to give back sans jacket, he left it at mom’s house”. 

“Yeah, Miss toriel washed it and cleaned it as soon as she got the chance, she wanted to thank you both for taking care of us for that weekend.” Frisk said

“Ah so that’s where it went. Sans was really annoyed when he couldn’t find it. I told him to look under the sock pile, or in the trash tornado. Can’t believe he cleaned his room looking for it.” Papyrus laughed. “Maybe he isn’t as lazy as I though.” 

Both Asriel and frisk were surprised. Frisk because hearing that sans cleaned his room had never happened in any timeline. Asriel because sans had told him many timelines ago that he gave up on cleaning his room because it would just be reset. Maybe sans was trying to move on? Probably not, sans just really liked that jacket a lot.

Waking inside the house both realized that maybe it was more than just affection. No sock in the corner, no change in between the cushions, the whole house was overall clean. This was to say the least, worrying. 

“Uhhhhhhhh” Asriel said stating with wide eyes at the scene before him. 

“The fu—“ Frisk was about to say as sans came out of the kitchen. “—Uuuuuh Hey sans!” 

Sans just stared at them. Looking at Frisk, jacket in hand. 

“My jacket,” he said  
“Your jacket?” Frisk asked  
“The jacket” Asriel laughed  
“Your jacket sans!” Papyrus said, “you left it at Toriel’s!” 

Eyes dark and tired he walked over to Frisk and took the jacket. He walked over to the couch and collapsed on it.

“Pffft hahaha! Have you been looking for it these past three weeks?” Asriel could barely contain his laughter.

“I cleaned the whole house by myself looking for it” sans mumbled, his voice muffled, by the cushion of the couch. 

Frisk and Asriel burst out laughing.

“Come on brother it wasn’t that much” papyrus said “I do it every week” 

“For a guy who hasn’t cleaned in years, it was.” Sans said “I’m never putting that much effort into anything ever again.” 

Frisk loved seeing their friends like this acting happy, natural. Even sans looked happy, despite his weirdness and mystery, and that was a rarity. It sure beat any other possible outcome. Sure, they had struggled a bit, but it was worth it in the end. It was the perfect happy ending. 

Frisk took a seat beside the tired sans. “Toriel is inviting everyone to celebrate the one month on the surface anniversary. Ya know, lunch. Would you guys like to come?”

“Of course frisk!” papyrus said excitedly. “I need to get some groceries from the store, but on the way back ill head over” he added, “sans hows about you head over there with frisk and Asriel?”

“sure,” said sans.

And with that. Papyrus was gone and the only ones left in the house were Frisk, Asriel, and Sans.

Frisk looked around the room, although it was much cleaner, it hadn’t changed as much as they had originally thought. The sock pile was gone, but the sticky notes were stored in the TV cabinet. They took a deep breath, preparing for the hard part to come. They couldn’t go on like  
this. As the morning sun Beamed high in the sky, frisk remembered of all the times they had taken that privilege from the monsters. The sun warming their skin, feeling the breeze of the wind, the different birds, the flowers blooming in the ever-changing seasons. It really was a beautiful world outside the mountain. Humans didn’t appreciate it, but that didn’t mean that it was worthless, they just had lost the ability to love it. Now, with monsters on the surface, it really seemed like everyone was trying to move forward together towards a better future in this beautiful world. Well, almost everyone. Frisk could tell, that despite his best efforts,  
sans was struggling to let go of the past. Frisk was certain that sans couldn’t remember the resets, however, flowey had indeed done some questionable things, permanently seared into the timeline when frisk had stolen flowey's power, and sans was still bitter about it. When no one was around, sans called asriel flowey, shot him odd looks, continued to bring up the fact that asriel had used papyrus. Not to mention the reports. Sans could know just how many timelines had occurred by reading the reports. while frisk had never actually seen them, the human knew that sans was also mad at them. After all, finding out your savior had done 27 other timelines, in which they had probably killed you, wasn’t easy to swallow. Knowing that frisk had reset so many previous times, it was no wonder sans had given up on the future, after all, he’d never get to see it. But, frisk was determined to help sans understand that this really was it. they didn’t want to reset ever again. They had finally gotten their happy ending. Walking over to the couch, asriel and frisk took a seat next to sans. 

"you mind?" asked frisk. 

"nope" came the reply.

Frisk would take this slow, they knew sans was sensible to this topic and didn’t want to make him run away. they needed to talk. Sans couldn’t just keep pretending everything was okay, they all knew, it wasn’t. 

"so..." frisk started. "how ya doing?" this was off to a great start. 

"hm?" sans didn’t exactly know where frisk wanted to go, but he had a mild guess. 

"Are you, enjoying the surface?"  
"yeah"  
"..."  
"..."  
"Can’t help but feel like you’re unhappy"  
"huh, and what makes you say that?" 

frisk avoided sans’ gaze. now or never. "i know" Frisk paused "I know finding out about the resets hurt you" sans stayed quiet. "and I don’t blame you" "Finding out I was a soulless killer really changes your perspective on me" "but please, Don’t let your hatred towards me prevent you from living happily in the surface" 

asriel stood near frisk. while they weren’t exactly off by saying that it hurt sans, he already had known for many, many timelines. "I promise sans" frisk took a deep breath "that there will be no more resets." 

everyone in the room froze 

"never again". 

Sans was angry, to say the least. No more resets. What a hypocrite. He knew that the moment his back was turned, frisk would just reset, and do it all over again. Wouldnt be the first time. And then they would say that even though sans couldn’t remember they would never ever reset ever again, thinking that sans wouldn’t remember their promise to stop the resets, flowey had done it, and it was only a matter of time before frisk did too. This world would just keep on looping over and over again, and there was no stopping it. In all this time, sans hadn’t lopped away from frisk, his expression as neutral as ever. 

He let out a dry, bittersweet chuckle. "sure kid" and went back to napping on his jacket. 

"you always do this sans." frisk said, flatly. They were frustrated at sans’ lack of cooperation.

Asriel certainly hadn’t been expecting it. Even though he had agreed to talk to sans, frisk was doing all the talking themselves, asriel was just there to spectate. 

"you pretend that everything is fine, you put on a fake smile, and just joke your way out of everything." At that, sans' whole facade dropped, cracks in the walls he had built to shield himself from his own emotions, started to appear. His smile dropped his stance grew tense. 

"don’t sans," said Asriel, 

Frisk shot a look towards asriel "let him talk" 

Sans looked at the two. Sorting through his thoughts, wondering if it was worth it. Sans didn’t answer back. 

Frisk grew frustrated. "come on sans! I can tell you’re not 'fine' " frisk suddenly burst out. "Your magic has been acting weird, you’re super aggressive, you barely talk to anyone, not even paps!" Frisk wasn’t gonna let this topic go. "and to top it all off, you keep ignoring anyone who tries to help you!" frisk looked pained, while sans remained neutral. was none of this getting through to him? Yet frisk wouldn’t give up. "hiding away your problems won’t fix anything sans." They turned around "so please, when you’re willing to let me help you, just talk to me" 

And the line in the sand had been drawn. Frisk wouldn’t allow for this to continue. Asriel looked worried towards sans, although his expression had been a stone this whole time, asriel didn’t expect that to last very long. Sans could only take so much before snapping. And with this topic, well, it wouldn’t be the first time sans had decided to express his anger. Flowey had been incinerated more than once for trying to annoy sans with this topic.

Frisk turned back to sans "you’re really not gonna say anything?" they sighed "not even gonna acknowledge that I exist." 

And that was it. Sans took in a deep breath. "maybe id trust you more if hadn’t seen you murder papyrus over and over again for the sake of your own entertainment" 

Asriel froze. Frisk Stopped dead in their tracks. Sans, maintaining eye contact, not letting go. 

"You didn’t really think the weed would be the only one who would remember it?" He laughed sans’s voice cracked, pain in his eyes, frisk didn’t know what to say. They certainly hadn’t been expecting sans to say that. " You really think I would be so angry with asriel if it wasn’t because I remember every single second of unending torture.YEARS stuck in an unending time loop." 

The room was tense, the words sinking into frisk. He... remembered. Oh no. Oh no no no. He couldn’t, how could he? since the very beginning why had he not said anything??? why had sans endured so much pain, all alone, why had he never told anyone before? but frisk knew why. if hed told flowey, hell would have only gotten worse for him, and anyone else, they’d just forget. 

“Sans…” Asriel said. 

Sans’ eyes widened, realizing what hed just said. He turned from frisk, hands clutching his shirt, grasping at the ache of his soul. It would only get worse from here. He knew. 

“I,” frisk started “I didn’t know.”

“Of course you didn’t” sans said, eyes darkening until the light pupils had disappeared, “if flowey gave me hell, just imagining what you would do, well, I certainly didn’t want to find out.” 

So that was it. Sans had been scared to tell Frisk, fearing what they might do to him. Frisk had known that flower had taunted sans for many timelines, yet they couldn’t imagine sans ever being afraid of anything, sans was the strongest monster frisk knew. Seeing sans crumbling before them, it was a heartbreaking sight.

“If you’re gonna reset just do it.” He let out a shaky sight “no sense in dragging this out any longer” 

And sans did expect them to just reset and start the loop again, to try to find out every secret sans had managed to hide from them. The cruelty continued till he finally broke, not that he was very far away from it, every nightmare, every reset, furthering his own soul’s cracks. He knew, had it not been for the determination running through him, flowey would have broken him many, many years ago. It was just a matter of ti— 

A warm hug enveloped him, breaking him out of the spiraling thoughts.”I’m not resetting Sans” Frisk had managed to get through his crumbling walls, never had Sans felt a statement to be so true. Maybe, just this once. But he knew better, if they ended up resetting. No, he had trusted frisk before, Frisk had saved him. They had also killed him many times. 

Tears started to fill his eyes. Conflicted on wether to trust Frisk or completely rejecting the kid. His head versus his heart, both deeply scarred, looking not to hurt anymore. 

Frisk let Sans go. As he turned to face them. Frisk knew that Sans could kill them in an instant, he was mad enough to do it, yet, Sans didn’t, instead, he hugged back, the last trace of doubt leaving him. Maybe this was his happily ever after. 

Asriel who had been expecting sans to just blast Frisk, finally understood their blind trust in Sans. The three shared the same burden, even if others knew about the resets, actually remembering them was another thing.

Half an hour later, Frisk shared their experiences with the reset, apologizing for every timeline. Asriel explained how through the reset, he was able to reach a whole new level, messing with the universe’s code, and Sans explained his viewpoint, how he’d seen Flowey’s and Frisk’s slow fall as they decided to get curious with the timeline. 

Bork Bork! Sans’ phone ringed with messages unanswered.

-Papyrus- 

-Sans, I’ve finished grocery shopping, I’m heading to Toriel’s house.

-Brother you’re not here.

-Sans you’re starting to worry me.

-Sans please answer your phone.

Well that wasn’t good, everyone was already probably waiting for them. 

-Sans-

-sry bro was tlking 2 kids

-b right ther

“Paps is worried” sans said, glancing up “guess we should go” 

Right! The lunch party! Frisk stood up, It would be a 30 minute walk, faster if they took the bus.

“Kid” sans said

Turning around, seeing sans offering his hand. 

“I know a shortcut” he smiled.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

As soon as Frisk grabbed Sans’ hand they were back in the void. It was glitchier than Frisk remembered.

Sans seemed to notice too, maybe taking a shortcut hasn’t been the best idea. 

The three walked through the void when they were suddenly pulled back into a rift, falling on solid ground, outside the void. They seemed to be back in the base of the mountain? Well it was a 2 hour walk from here.

“Uhh Sans” Asriel asked. “Why’d you send us here?” 

“Wasn’t planning on it”He looked around “Something happened.”

“Something bad?” Frisk jumped in.

“It worked” a voice said, barely audible from where the group was sitting. 

Turning to where they’d heard the noise, was the group of attackers from those weeks ago. 

And then. 

They were surrounded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The calm before the storm am I right? 
> 
> Seems like the attackers really have a bone to pick with our protagonists.
> 
> And sans just can’t get a break today. 
> 
> Early chapter cuz I may not be able to update in Friday


	8. Golden Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The confrontation happens. No one knows WHAT to do, so Sans does his best to protect everything he cares about. He needs a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hell yes! I’ve been waiting to write this ever since we started! Drama! Action! Flashbacks! 
> 
> And mettaton makes an appearance cause I was emotionally blackmailed into writing him in the story.
> 
> Boi let’s go!

“Welcome Darlings!” Mettaton said, his glamour could be felt in the air. He was in his studio, starting up the documentary of the underground, to make it faster, several drones had been deployed through the mountain, it would be a live q&a documentary in with anyone could participate, the questions would be sent to mettaton’s line.

“Welcome welcome” he repeated “Today, as it had been announced, will be the live documentary of the underground, where we will be answering questions about what used to be the monsters’ home for so many years” 

After a few minutes of banter, the documentary was about to begin.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Papyrus paced around the kitchen, he’d bought some things for the party, and had taken the scenic route to Toriel’s, yet, his brother was nowhere to be seen. They all knew about the attack weeks prior, but it had been almost a month. He’d be arriving any minute now, with Frisk and Asriel and —

“Paps!” Undyne called from the couch “Mettaton is live, come watch!”

Despite his worries Papyrus sat down to enjoy the documentary. It would be nice to see his old home again. 

Everyone was in the living room, watching the documentary, waiting for Sans and the kids to arrive so they could start the lunch. 

There were a few shots of different areas of the underground, highlighting the main areas. The Ruins, Snowdin, Waterfall, Hotland, and finally The Capital. 

  
  


As Mettaton narrated the events that lead to the war, different important places of the underground were shown, the ruin’s palace, the new palace, snowdin’s grillby’s, waterfall’s dump, and Hotland’s lab. 

That brought back memories. He had been so little when it happened, the day if the accident that caused Sans’ magic to be so weird. Being Barely six years old, it was around midnight when his father had finally come home.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

“Papyrus?” Gaster called from the living room. He was covered in snow and still had his lab coat on, it looked to be half burned. 

“Da?” Papyrus responded, he was playing with a crossword behind the couch, the smaller skeleton had made a pillow fort, and puzzles were spread all over the room. 

Gaster sighed and picked Papyrus up, hugging him. That’s when Papyrus noticed, Sans wasn’t with him.

“Sans?” He called, hoping to find his brother hiding somewhere.

Gaster trembelled, he’d had a long day. “Papyrus, were going to be moving to the capital for a while, your brother is not well.” 

Papyrus was worried, how could he not be? But he understood the importance of this, Gaster‘s tone said everything. 

It took them a couple of days, but they managed to find a small apartment in the capital. Locking up their house in snowdin, and taking only a few bags with them, they had moved to the capital. One scientist of Gaster’s personal team came from time to time. His name was Miachel, and not much older than Sans, Papyrus loved him. He was the one that assured papyrus when he had doubts if sans would ever come back. He could see why sans loved being at the labs so much, such friendly people!

Gaster left early every day for the lab, dropping Papyrus off at school when he wasn’t with Miachel, and returned very late. Papyrus still had no news of Sans, it had been two weeks since he’d seen his brother. 

After the third week passed, Sans finally came home. He looked frail? There was a crack running down his right socket, half healed, it would take a few more weeks to heal, and his left eye was patched up. His arm had a cast on it and he was half asleep, being carried by Gaster. Papyrus ran towards him, embracing his brother. 

“Paps?” Sans said. He hugged back, Sans had also missed Papyrus.

Sans readjusted his glasses, bright red, bringing quite a contrast considering the rest of his uniform was white. Speaking of which, Sans’ lab coat was burned, no doubt Sans had spent the past few weeks in the same clothes. But right now, Papyrus didn’t care, all he did was hold on tight, and he knew, he’d never let go of his brother again.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

It had been a few years before Papyrus actually got the whole story. An accident at the core had happened, and his brother had been caught in the middle of it. Sans had gone through constant surgeries in order to keep him from falling. Talk about a close brush with death. 

The TV flickered and Papyrus was snapped out of the flashback. Mettaton was now showing pictures of outside the mountain. The forest, the rivers, the barrier, his brother…

Wait.

His brother?!?!?

  
  


Everyone in the room was stunned. Even Mettaton had gone silent. Sans, Frisk, and Asriel were being surrounded by a group of humans, and they had weapons. 

“Papyrus??” Undyne was the first to react “WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR BROTHER DOING THERE?” 

“I DON'T KNOW HE SAID HE WAS COMING OVER FROM OUR HOUSE”

“THEN HOW DID HE END UP BACK IN MOUNT EBOTT IN LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES”

“I DON'T KNOW!!! WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING AT ME?!?!” 

“BECAUSE THOSE PUNKS ARE IN TROUBLE AND WERE STILL SITTING IN THE COUCH!” 

It took them a few seconds to get out of the house and into the car. They knew the mountain by heart, but it was still quite far away from them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sans looked around at his attackers, 8 of them, cutting off any exits. If his shortcuts were malfunctioning, he couldn’t risk warping wrong again. Unless… had the human said ‘it worked’? Had they found a way to interfere with his shortcuts? No, that couldn’t be it, his magic was linked to the CORE because of the accident, so unless they had access to the CORE they couldn’t touch him. Maybe it was just because he was warping so many people at once. 

“Dammit.” He hissed

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~ 

“I-i I’ve got the tablet linked to Mtt’s drones” Said alphys “That w-way we c-can see I-if they’re still fi-fine” 

{“Nice one Sans!”} Asriel’s voice could be heard through the tablet. Apparently Mettaton’s drones had good sound range. Everything could be heard. 

Mettaton on the other hand, continued giving a live report on the fight, praying that the police would arrive and put and end to it before someone got injured. 

{“Frisk just said they weren’t gonna Reset, EVER”} Asriel continued, sounding more upset with each word “And your first instinct is to try to get us killed”?}

“I’m gonna kill that skeleton” said Undyne, while driving the car

{“I didn’t do it on purpose” responded sans “get off my back”} 

“Why is he still going on about the resets?” Undyne asked “Didn’t we all agree to forgive Frisk?” 

“W-well Sans has always been interested in that topic, as far as I know, he connected the analyzer to the underground’s magical matrix and —“ alphys blinked. Everyone was staring at her, now really knowing what she was talking about. Alphys backtracked, she sighed and said, “As far as I know, sans was keeping track of the resets” 

“What?” Papyrus asked 

“Sans knew about the timelines before Frisk confessed” alphys said “It was part of our studies in the lab.” Alphys avoided everyone’s gaze. “Sans probably confronted Frisk about the resets, not believing that this is their last timeline” 

“But my child wouldn’t lie, it’s been a month since we left.” Toriel added

“Well, yes, Frisk has promised, but we don’t know how many timelines they have been through.” Alphas herself had doubts of Frisk. “Only Sans knows”

“And why didn’t that idiot say anything before?!” Undyne was getting restless “We could have done something about it, but no! He had to confront Frisk in his own and now they’re all in trouble” 

No one answered her question, but it was clear that she wasn’t expecting an answer either.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Everyone was still waiting for the opposites to attack. Even though The humans outnumbered the monsters on an almost 3-1, they didn’t move a muscle. Sans wouldn’t wait for another opportunity. He started the fight. 

  
  


[Battle Start]

“Sans!” Frisk screamed “you know we’re outnumbered!”

“Yup”

“Why did you start the fight??” 

Sans turned the attackers’ souls blue, throwing them to the ground. 

“You Two need to run” he said, turning to Asriel and Frisk. “The blue won’t last for long” 

“What?” Frisk wouldn’t leave sans here alone. He might have been able to defeat frisk countless times, but now there were EIGHT humans challenging him. 

“I’ll be fine!” Sans said “Just leave!” 

“He's not going anywhere” said one of the attackers, standing up, fighting the blue that tried to keep him pinned to the ground. 

Sans turned back to the fight “Run!” 

And Frisk did, they didn’t have any weapons with them and they probably would only get in the way of Sans’ magic. 

However, Asriel stayed. And with that, the blue dissipated, the humans could now move freely. 

“Dammit! Why didn’t you leave with Frisk?” Sans snapped.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~ 

“Frisk got away!” Alphys announced. “Sans is covering for their retreat” 

“Then we better be fast!” Said Toriel. “We don’t know how long Sans will be able to hold them off.”

{“I’m not leaving you alone Sans!” Asriel’s voice rang powerful through the tablet.

“We’ve been a team ever since Frisk came to the underground, you know I can handle the fight. I’m. Not. Leaving.”}

Alphys wondered what they meant by that. Did Sans know flowey? But hadn’t flowey also done terrible things? Why would Sans trust Flowey but not Frisk?

{“Fine, if you still got your magic, take out their guns, them having ranged attacks will only make this worse for us”

Asriel nodded. Summoning some vines, he grabbed onto the guns, and with a flick of his wrist, buried them deep below ground, unreachable by humans.

“Good job, now will you leave? I can avoid the melee attacks by myself, and I’m way better at dodging than you” sans said.

Asriel though for a moment and then agreed “fine! But only because Toriel would murder you if I got hurt” 

Asriel turned to leave. “And sans please. You’re not invincible. Be careful.”

“Asriel!” Sans called after Him. “Get Frisk and warn the others, keep yourselves safe.” 

Asriel nodded, and then he disappeared behind the tree line. }

“Asriel is also leaving, Sans is trying to stop the humans.” Alphys announced. 

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

As the group arrived at the mountain trail, police were scattered through the area, searching for a way to reach the fight. 

“The police don’t know the way! That’s why no one has put an end to it yet!” Said Undyne

“We must help them, or we may risk losing our friends!” Responded Asgore “I’ll go warn the Police, Undyne go help out our friends” 

“Yes sir!” Undyne said

“GUYS!!” Frisk and Asriel came running from the forest edge, far enough that the police didn’t even notice. 

“Guys you gotta come fast! Some humans attacked us and Sans is all alone-“ Frisk said

“We know, lead the way” interrupted Undyne.

And so the group scampered off to try and reach sans before it was too late.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Sans took a few steps back, The now approaching humans and their weapons, suddenly seemed too close for comfort. 

And a bright light shined through the <strike>corridor</strike> trees, their <strike>knife</strike> weapons looking ever more dangerous.

Sans’ eyes widened, he hadn’t expected that the subjects of his bad dreams would leech into reality. Seeing a foe that wasn’t there, being afraid of an unreal threat. Blasting someone by mistake, because he thought that they were someone else. Well, generally losing control over his magic wasn’t at the top of Sans’ priorities. 

And his friends asked why he hated fighting.

The first human dove forwards, tying to punch him. Sans took a step left, dogging out of the way. “What you think I’m just gonna stand there and take it?” Now his speech was also leaking? Okay, maybe being killed over and over again had traumatized him a little. 

His eye flashed cyan and he summoned a turrent of bones, pushing the attackers away. 

And now he was standing in the lab? A bright energy in front of him. What? Why? Help. He needed...

  
  


He clutched his head, his own magic hurt him. He tried to stop seeing things that weren’t there, focus on the real danger. Raw magic spilled from his eye socket. 

The pain and sting of his own magic, The hallucinations, the exhaustion, it was becoming too much to bear. Why was his magic so uncontrolled? What was interfering with it? 

Could it be, that since time kept repeating itself, moving forwards was so rare that his magic didn’t like it? 

Okay that was stupid. He’d need to figure out something before it was too late. 

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

  
  


The project was taking shape, the prototype was ready for testing.

“Whenever you’re ready G” sans announced.

For the past 6 months they had been working on it. A way to jump across realities. Although Gaster had warned that the project was extremely dangerous, it wouldn’t stop Sans. 

The machine sparked to life, a small ball of energy at its core, growing, expanding.The scientist were marveled. A gateway to another reality. A shortcut through the barrier. Sans reached out, getting closer to the machine. It was so mesmerizing, so beautiful, and then it was gone. Something happened, the machine shut off.

He spun on his feet, quickly trying to find the source of the problem. “What’s goin on?” Gaster quickly approached him also trying to address the situation. 

“The power ran out. It was bound to happen.” Said Gaster.

Sans turned back to the machine. For just a few seconds, it had been so beautiful. 

Suddenly the energy re emerged, forming from nothing. 

“Doc, was that supposed to happen?” Asked sans, backing away from it.

It now had a reddish tone to it, then flickering between purple and yellow, recognizing the different magical outputs in the room. 

“Sans lets go.” Gaster had seen this before, the first time the project went wrong. Last time, he’d been lucky, only minor injuries, burns mostly. But now? They were too close to the rift. They had to move, had to leave! 

Suddenly electrical rays shot around the room, with no target, missing the scientists by a few inches.

Sans was starting to understand why Gaster had said it was so dangerous. The energy was so unstable, anything could destabilize it. 

Lighting flashed all over the room.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

His magic flared through the clearing, unfinished attacks not truly dealing any damage, just being annoying. Sans merely dodged and sent out attacks when the humans got too close. He was busy enough ignoring the flashbacks. 

He wouldn’t last very long. Would this be the end? Asriel and Frisk wouldn’t get help in time. His magic was uncontrolled, he was just as likely to kill one of the humans as he was to kill himself.

He closed his eyes. Took a chance and teleported. But, his magic. Pain shot through his skull like a needle being plunged into his soul. He collapsed on the ground. The air knocked out of his non-existent lungs. CRACK! His skull hurt like hell. He’d pushed himself too far. His magic was too unstable. 

Note to self: don’t try to teleport when magic is weird. 

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

The lab was lit up like a disco, the team had gone to take cover, but Sans and Gaster were still within range. A ray hit near Gaster’s feet, setting his coat on fire, he tripped from the blast, stunned. More rays were emerging from the energy. It would only be a matter of time before another ray landed too close. 

Sans needed to do something, he couldn’t let Gaster die! He turned Gaster’s soul blue.

Valerie screamed “Sans stop! The room is too unstable” 

Gaster’s eyes widened. Sans pulled him out of danger. A ray shot out. Sans’ magic was like a homing beacon for the CORE’s electricity.

He turned.

The ray launched towards him.

Straight.

Into.

His.

Eye.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Sans freezed. Why were these memories coming back now? There were plenty other times for this. 

He breathed heavily. Spent magic rained around him. His attacks not truly being efficient. The ground was spinning. . He was Hyperventilating. The humans regrouped.

Quick check.

[???? Hp 10/27]

[???? Hp 4/20]

[???? Hp 7/23]

[???? Hp 3/20]

[???? Hp 3/25]

[???? Hp 5/29]

[???? Hp 6/24]

[???? Hp 4/20]

  
  


They were all very low, he really needed help, they wouldn’t stop until Sans was dead. 

But he was so tired.

[Sans Hp 1]

[ Attack 1 Defense 1]

[Mp 150/15000]

He was losing magic too quickly. He wouldn’t last much longer.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

“It’s somewhere around here” announced Frisk 

A strong magical aura filled them. They were definitely close to Sans. 

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

He had no fight left in him. It had been about 20 minutes of persistent fighting, against eight opponents. He closed his eyes, he could barely take another step to dodge. And they knew it

With one final sprint the humans approached Sans. He should have seen it coming, he should have dodged he should have done something, but he really couldn’t.

Mustering one final attack sans grabbed the human’s souls. Sweat dropped down his face. He pushed them all away, slamming them into the trees.

“Sans!!!” Papyrus called out. He ran towards his brother embracing him. Sans soul seemed so dim, like it had no magic left. His body was limp. He didn’t look to be hurt but his eye was clearly burned out from the amount of magic used. 

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

“Sans! Hold on” A familiar voice sounded nearby 

His eye hurt. He felt disconnected. He looked at his hands, they were blurry? It hurt to move his arm. What was happening?

He looked over to his left he couldn’t see anything out of that eye. 

“—- be alright!” The voice continued.

He was being carried around the lab, that he could tell. He focused on the figure next to him. Gaster. Why was? Wait, he got Gaster out! He saved him. 

“Doc—?” Sans mustered. His voice raw and coarse. It was a struggle just to finish that sentence. He blacked out.

Much later. He was stabilized.

“—ans?” Gaster called out. “Sans?” 

Sans opened his eyes. “Doc?” He tried to move, but was immobilized by something.

“There we go.” Gaster Said. “Don’t try to move.” Gaster fiddled around with some tubes. “Do you remember what happened?” 

Sans tried to remember, but apart from the ignition of the machine, it was all a blur. “No?” 

“You were hit by the energy, your body was destabilized. Your magic attracted the rays and you were hit directly by it, it burned out your right eye. 

Sans remained silent.

“We’ve done everything we can, but, it’s very unlikely that you’ll ever see out of that eye again.” 

Gaster sighed. Not knowing what to say.

Sans looked at him. He’d obviously hadn’t slept in a few days, he looked tired and had a look of worry in his eyes…

“Did… did anyone else get hurt?” Sans managed to say, speaking hurt him. 

“No, you managed to get me out of there, and the others were safe.”

Sans sighed in relief.

“Sans, do not think you are off the hook.” Gaster Said

Sans tensed at that.

“What you did was extremely reckless and you know it is forbidden to use magic in the middle of an experiment.” Gaster lectured. “You almost died.” 

Sans understood, and he accepted it, it wasn’t something that would be easily forgotten. 

“Rest for now, we’ll talk later.” Gaster announced

“Wait dad!” Sans said. 

Gaster turned to look at him. 

“How… how long have I been out?” He asked 

Gaster took a moment before answering. “12 days” 

It was at that moment that Sans realized, It had been a very, very close brush with death. 

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

He was in his brother’s arms. Barely standing up. Papyrus was saying something, Sans wasn’t listening. 

“Brother, you’re okay, no need to keep fighting.” Papyrus said “here sit down”

Sans agreed, but didn’t actually sit, his vision was hazy, and didn’t really understand what papyrus was saying. 

Papyrus turned from him, and called Undyne, “he’s here” 

Sans looked around at the devastation. Bone attacks everywhere, the humans knocked out. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

He looked around. There should be eight. Where was the eighth? 

He felt a tug on his jacket. A human, the eighth. He had a knife. Sans’ eyes became black pits. 

“Papyrus!” Undyne called. The whole group behind her. 

Papyrus, turned to Sans, just in time to see the human swing at his brother. 

Sans stumbled.

The knife drew near.

No time to think

No time to act.

Puré réflex.

And fear.

A whine of a wild animal growled behind sans, and then WRAAAAAGH!! It’s growl terrifying. It fired at the human.

[Mp 100/15000]

Sans wouldn’t let them win.

[Mp 74/15000]

Today was not his day.

[Mp 56/15000]

He would not die

[Mp 34/15000]

Even if he had to put forth every

[Mp 12/15000]

Last.

[Mp 5/15000]

Bit.

[Mp 3/15000]

Of.

[Mp 1/15000]

Magic.

Sans collapsed. He had given the Blaster everything he had, instinctively.

He had burnt out.

The human in front of him lay limp. Unmoving. 

*Battle over!*

*You gained 12 exp and 5 gold!*

*Your LV increased*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will someone get this skeleton a bed? He needs a nap. And some painkillers. And some medical assistance.
> 
> No one mind that his LV has gone up....
> 
> Clarifications! 
> 
> Mp stands for Magic Points, a way of measuring how much magic a monster has. 
> 
> A boss monster such as Asgore or Toriel would have about 50,000 mp
> 
> A semi-boss like undyne would have 10,000 mp
> 
> Sans has 15,000 mp 
> 
> If your MP reaches 0, you fall down.
> 
> But don’t worry! Alphys can help!
> 
> Maybe.


End file.
